Toy Maker Tidbits

Hello! It’s sure been a busy few months for us and we bet it has been for you too! It’s hard to believe another holiday season is upon us. We’ll be back with more on this blog soon, but for now we wanted to provide some ideas on how to use our website to help simplify your toy shopping for the holidays, while finding quality, educational toys that kids will love. Today, we take a look how to browse and shop by a child’s age group!

Our selection of baby toys for little ones up to 12 months proves you’re never too little to play! Stimulating toys that promote learning and growth, babies enjoy things that rattle or make other noise, are decorated with bright colors, or otherwise make them smile. Start them off right!

As one year olds grow, they are always on the go and ready for more involved playtime. They are developing imaginations and learning how to pretend, as well as growing confidence. They can use foot to floor ride on toys, stacking and sorting toys, as well as early learning toys.

2 year olds are ready to play! Busy toddlers are learning to play on their own but still often need (and want) help from parents and older siblings. These kids like to play with their hands, put things together and watch things work, so bath toys, musical toys, and construction toys are just right!

There may not be a bigger stage advancement between age groups than that of 3 and 4 year olds. These preschoolers are full of energy and ready for new experiences. They love ride-on toys, puzzles, early craft projects and more.

Early school-aged children, 5 and 6 year olds, hit huge strides in growth and development. While they are reading and learning to solve problems, they still enjoy pretend play and using their imaginations.

Developing more of an independent streak, 7 and 8 year olds definitely have more “favorites” and know how they want to spend their spare time. They are ready for tougher strategy games and more complex kits as their minds continue to expand.

9 and 10 year olds are growing fast, spending more time away from home and learning more about what they like and don’t like. They can take advantage of individual games and activities when they want some time alone, while more social activities like games and sports toys are fun for open-ended play with others.

As kids reach 11 years and older playing with “toys” may be far from their radar. Yet it is important that these older kids still find time to relax, unwind, and simply have fun! Puzzles, sports toys, and open-ended art and science kits would be among the enjoyable toys for this diverse group.

As always, kids may not necessarily fit in with their numerical age group! Use your best judgement and the experience you have with the child you are shopping for to decide if perhaps a toy labeled as ages 6 and up may just be appropriate for that bright 4-year-old.

Also check out our Gift Guide for our favorites for gift-giving, with about 50 toys hand-picked by each age group.

Happy Shopping! Come back to our blog to read more ideas for shopping within our fun toy departments or finding toys from your favorite toy brands.

While you start hearing Christmas music in the stores earlier and earlier each year, to me, the holiday season isn’t truly here until I hear Christmas music played entirely by tubas. That’s right: tubas!

When I lived out West I took part in the annual TubaFest for several years. Literally hundreds of tuba players – from the smaller alto horns to the big Sousaphones – would spend one special day practicing, then putting on two festive performances. While we were encouraged to pick up the music ahead of time to practice, we put on the shows after just a few hours of practice together!

There is an official, nationwide event called TUBACHRISTMAS that takes place throughout the country. Some locations hold the event on Black Friday, while others maintain the original tradition of performing on Christmas Eve.

This photo here is one of the coolest pictures I have seen! This is from San Antonio in 2009. What a fun perspective for both the players and the audience!

You don’t have to look far to see dozens of awesome TUBACHRISTMAS performances, many taken from a unique perspective, like a Sousaphone in the back row! Watch an example here, “We Wish You a Merry (TUBA) Christmas” from TuBaltimore in 2009.

For more about the San Antonio Tuba Meister Christmas see this blog post. To find a TUBACHRISTMAS performance near you, or to join if you play, visit the TUBACHRISTMAS website.

Are you, or is someone close to you a teacher of grades kindergarten through 3rd grade? Then you should check out the awesome Playmobil Teachers Grant Program!

For over 25 years, Playmobil Toys have inspired children to play with fun and recognizable examples of real life like Police and City and the newer School, as well as fantasy themes such as Ghost Pirates. This grant program challenges teachers to develop lesson plans based on any of Playmobil’s themes. All lesson plans will be judged by the following criteria:

• Inspires creativity
• Educational content
• Originality
• Ease of implementation

Winning teachers will help their schools and students “win” too with Playmobil awarding $1,400 in grants and $3,175 (retail value) of their fun toys.

The deadline to create a Playmobil-based lesson plan and apply for a grant is February 28, 2011. We hope this program inspires not just teachers, but everyone to explore new ways to play with Playmobil toys!

I loved Ratatat Cat from Gamewright when I was in elementary school. It’s a game that combines memory and strategy with anthropomorphic rats and cats. If I couldn’t convince anyone to play it with me, sometimes I just looked at the illustrations on the cards and imagined things about the characters. Gamewright makes awesome kids’ games.

Do you know what else they do? Partner with parents and teachers to put on super fun fundraisers in schools. With the new school year approaching these Gamewright GameNights are a great way to meet other families, play together and raise money for your children’s school!

Here’s how it works: One evening, the school hosts a GameNight at which families can play a range of new and favorite games provided by Gamewright. During the evening, people can purchase games and half of the proceeds from the sales are donated to your school! (The games will range in price from around 5 dollars to 15 dollars).

Gamewright makes it very simple to hold one of these events. Here are the steps to making it happen:

Step 1: First coordinate a date and location. Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings sometime between 6 and 9 are usually ideal. A central location like a school gym or cafeteria works well and two hours is the perfect amount of time.

Step 2: Once all the details are set with the school, contact Gamewright to give them the information plus your school’s shipping address. Gamewright then sends promotional posters and flyers to distribute throughout classrooms. They’ll also send demo games 2 weeks before the event so that your volunteer staff can learn the rules.

Step 3: You’ll need 1 volunteer to staff the sales table, 1 to staff a demo games table and then a handful of “Game Gurus”—people that can teach the games. Enlisting older kids and teens as some of the Game Gurus will make the night special for younger kids and the more Game Gurus you have the better!

Step 4: To promote the GameNight, distribute the provided fliers around the community and send mini flyers home with kids. Use your school’s PTO or PTA email lists to send out an announcement to weeks prior to the event and then another email reminder a few days before the event. Announce the event at community gatherings and at a PTO meeting!

Gamewright GameNights are a nice way to fundraise because kids don’t have to peddle candies, wrapping paper or knickknacks to their grandparents and neighbors. They can volunteer and help out at the event or just come and play! It’s low stress and lots of fun! Learn more about Gamewright GameNights here! Contact them at gamenight@gamewright.com or call 1-800-638-7568 x221 for more information.

This week in our hometown of State College, Penn State is hosting the National Autism Conference – a conference that provides “comprehensive, evidence-based information to assist educators, other professionals, and families in developing effective educational programming for all students with autism spectrum disorders.” For 5 days, family members, physicians, educators and more attend various educational sessions that cover a wide range of autism topics and research.

We often see attendees from the conference in our store, searching for great developmental toys that they can use in their homes, classrooms, and offices. We strive to have a wonderful mix of toys that can address the ages, interests, and needs of all children, and certainly providing toys for special needs children is no exception!

While we have a wide array of toys from traditional manufacturers that are wonderful for children with special needs, we have also added a new company to the mix for us that has a focus in toys for special needs – Fun and Function! Launched in 2005, Fun and Function has a goal to provide affordable special needs toys that are not only innovative, but cool and fun for children too! With a wide variety of products, from tagless and weighted clothing to specialized ride-ons and exercise balls, Fun and Function is a fantastic resource for families and therapists looking for special needs products.

The first item that we have brought in from Fun and Function is the Saddle Scooter – and look at how much fun it is! This bright red, U-shaped scooter is low to the ground for younger children or children with gravitational insecurities, is made from high density foam, and features rubber, caster swivel wheels to scoot all around. This multi-functional Saddle Scooter is just one of the many great products available from Fun and Function – and it is perfect for play or therapy!

In addition to the Saddle Scooter from Fun and Function, we are happy to offer a wonderful collection of educational toys that are great for special needs children, from toys that work on motor skills to toys that help with early learning and more. But, if you are looking for more products from Fun and Function than we have at the moment, you can visit their website for their full collection of special needs products. We are very happy to add this innovative company to our toy selection, and we hope to expand our offerings from them in the future – because more than anything, they are about helping children reach their fullest potential through play.

And, that’s why we love the Saddle Scooter and Fun and Function, and we hope you do too!

No better time than the hottest weeks of summer so far to test the 6-in-1 Educational Solar Kit! One of our more popular gifts this summer, I’ve had my eye on it for a while.

Just like all Elenco Toys, the kit has everything you need for many hours of learning and fun. The directions are very clear of which parts you need for each of the six different solar models: Windmill, Revolving Plane, Airboat, Plane, Car and even a Puppy! Make on at a time; all are powered by the same solar module.

Let me frankly say that the module is a little tricky to put together! I’ll blame our adult-sized hands and guess that kids 10 and up would have an easier time inserting the white and green wires where they needed to go. You get the hang of it though.

As it says on the package, the parts all snap together and you don’t necessarily need any tools. They suggest using a diagonal cutter and we found one helpful for the initial removal of the plastic pieces out of the box.

You and your kids can decide what your favorite of the six is; ours was a tie between the Car and Revolving Plane. On a sunny day you really have to keep an eye on the car, because it moves quickly! Here too is a video of the Revolving Plane – you can see how fast it gets going in the sun!

No sun? No problem, really. While perhaps not quite as fun, you can put the solar panel near a halogen light bulb to get the motors moving. Note it only works for halogen lights, not fluorescent!

One more note, this kit proves that good things DO come in small packages! It’s all packed into a box that’s just 8″ x 7″ x 2″. But at just $24.99, the 6-in-1 Educational Solar Kit is a perfect multi-purpose kit for older kids. All will be amazed that the light we’re surrounded by every day can power these toys!

No surprise – we love playing with toys around here. See more staff toy reviews!